Amzel Electronics Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator

The Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator is a distortion pedal from Amzel Electronics, and it was the company's debut product. It is a 100% analog distortion pedal with an unusual approach: rather than a single gain stage, it combines three interacting circuits, a distortion, a filter and a dynamic section, in one blue box¹.

What it does

The pedal's three circuits work together rather than in a fixed chain. The central control is the Injector knob, which changes the way the three circuits interact with each other: at zero it disables the filters and dynamics entirely, leaving the distortion on its own, while at higher values it increases the distortion and activates the Res(onance), Freq(uency) and Accent controls¹. In practice, that means the pedal can run from a straightforward distortion to a more complex, filtered and touch-sensitive sound depending on where the Injector is set.

The tone filter is also wired unconventionally. Guitar.com's review explains the design intent²:

That arrangement keeps the core character of the guitar intact underneath the effect, which is a different philosophy from a conventional distortion pedal where the tone control shapes the whole signal. For context on how it sits among other gain pedals, see Distortion Pedals, Overdrive Pedals and Fuzz Pedals.

Versions

The Cheshire Cat first appeared as a blue box in 2014¹. In August 2015, Guitar.com reviewed a new green version of the pedal, which the site described as boasting higher-quality potentiometers and a smaller footprint than the original blue version².

Where it came from

Amzel Electronics unveiled the Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator in July 2014 as its debut product, with founder Bill Price presenting the pedal in a demo video¹. Delicious Audio's Ryan Dembinsky covered the pedal in a later review³.